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NOTE Original editorial English translations. Latin passages quoted from Seneca Epistulae morales 26.

1
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Tacitus reports that Seneca asked for the writing tablets of his will.

2
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The centurion refused. He left his friends only what remained: the image of his life.

3
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I told you I was within sight of old age. Now I fear that old age is already behind me.

4
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Years have marked my body. Yet I do not feel their injury in my mind.

5
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Each day takes something away from our strength.

6
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Is there a better end than slowly to dissolve, as nature releases us?

7
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I watch myself, as though the day has come which must judge all the years of my life.

8
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I will entrust to death the measure of my progress.

9
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That day will reveal whether I only speak with courage, or truly feel it.

10
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Put aside the opinions of other people. They are always uncertain.

11
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Put aside the studies pursued throughout your life. Death will pronounce the judgment.

12
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Learned conversation and the sayings of wise men do not reveal the true strength of the soul.

13
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Even a frightened man may speak bravely.

14
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What you have done will be clear when you draw your last breath.

15
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Accipio condicionem. Non reformido iudicium.
I accept the condition. I do not fear the judgment.

16
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I say these things to myself. But take them as spoken to you as well.

17
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You are younger. What difference does it make? Years are not counted.

18
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Incertum est quo loco te mors exspectet. Itaque tu illam omni loco exspecta.
You cannot know where death awaits you; therefore be ready for it everywhere.

19
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To meditate on death is to meditate on freedom.

20
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Whoever has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave.

21
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There is only one chain that binds us: the love of life.

22
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We need not cast it away. Only loosen its hold, so that when necessity comes, we are ready.

23
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Vale.
Farewell.